Candidates Berlin 2018: What you need to know

3/9/2018 – The long-anticipated Candidates tournament starts tomorrow! You can watch with live video on WorldChess.com or the games on ChessBase via live.chessbase.com. We'll be having daily coverage, including the popular video round-up shows with well known contributors like Daniel King, Lawrence Trent, Simon Williams, Erwin l'Ami and Oliver Reeh. | Photo and drawings by World Chess

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Candidates in the "cool house"

This evening, the opening ceremony will kick off the 2018 Candidates Tournament in Berlin. Eight players compete in a double round-robin to determine the challenger for the next World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen.

The first round will take place on Saturday, March 10th, starting at 15:00 CET (9:00 AM EST). After every three rounds, there is a rest day, with the final fourteenth round scheduled for March 27th. In theory, there could be a tiebreak played on March 28th, but the mathematical tiebreak system makes that virtually impossible.

The prize fund is 420,000 euros. Of this, the winner gets 95,000 euros, second place receives 88,000 euros, and third, 75,000 euros. The eighth and last of the tournament will take home 17,000 euros.

One will win

As you can see, five of these players are among the current top ten, and the other three are not far away: Ding (11), Grischuk (12), Karjakin (13).

A slight favourite in the eyes of many is Levon Aronian. Aronian has participated in a number of Candidates matches and tournaments before, and has always been considered one of the favourites, but he has never been able to qualify. "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride". Is it the nerves? But maybe this year will be different; of the eight candidates, the Armenian is the closest to a "Berliner", having lived in the city and played for Berlin's Bundesliga team. Many Berlin chess friends know him from this time will keep their fingers crossed for him.

In the last Candidates tournament, Fabiano Caruana was among the most promising candidates. And was a few moves away from qualifying, but in the end, Serey Karjakin prevailed. Wesley So has had a tremendous rise in recent years. The US-based Filipino sometimes starts out flying high but quickly comes down to earth.

Of course, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is at the top of the world rankings among the players. He gained a momentum in the past year and his chess has "grown up," as the Azerbaijani player himself judged in a recent interview. Ding has already achieved everything with the team. Can he also refill in the individual?

Ding Liren's participation is the first time in the history of chess we have a Chinese candidate for a world championship. Ding has already achieved tremendous success as a team player. Can he also prove his mettle as an individual?

Vladimir Kramnik (along with Karjakin) has already played for the title and, of course, Kramnik was the 14th World Champion and defended the title on several occasions. Will he maintain his motivation and energy over the three long weeks and fourteen games?

Sergey Karjakin has been the darling of Russia following his success two years ago. Does he have the panache to repeat the success, particularly as a young father? Finally, there is Alexander Grischuk. In his last Candidates, there were matches, and he made it to the final. He considers himself the outsider.

Kramnik's stamina was on display at the opening press conference, where he did multiple back-to-back interviews | Photo: Macauley Peterson

Where

Berlin is "poor, but sexy," said former mayor Klaus Wowereit. Since then it has even become more sexy. And Berlin is a big chess city, with about 50 chess clubs, including the Berlin Chess Society of 1826, the oldest existing German chess club.

For the 2015 Blitz and Rapid World Championship, the organising company World Chess diligently sold tickets and was even surprised by the crowds at the Bolle Meierei. The layout of the hall and the number of interested fans made it hard to move around at times. The new venue a the "Kuehlhaus" ("cold store") will probably be much better, with more space and fewer players. The plans specify 5000 square meters available across multiple floors.

Five floors at the Kühlhaus | Photo: Worldchess

The playing hall and the spectator area looks quite futuristic. The players seem to be sitting along a cube spread around four tables on the first floor. The spectators can look down on the players from above. Seats — other than for the players — are scarce.

The playing hall first floor | Photo: Worldchess

On the third floor, you can watch the games on display screens, analyze and play yourself. The press conferences will be held on the fourth floor, after each day's play. The commentators will be there, too. For the international audience, Judit Polgar will be paired up with Yannick Pelletier and Lawrence Trent. For the local German-speaking audience, GM Ilja Zaragatski anchors the show, alongside a variety of co-commentators.

The fifth floor is expected to be reserved for VIP guests.

Via Ticketmaster, Agon has offered three types of cards, white, silver and gold. The prices range from about 17 Euro (White) to 107 Euro (Gold). On the first and last day, ticket prices are double, but Agon says most of the tickets are already sold out. The difference of the categories is not fully explained, but presumably, not all floors are accessible to the people in the "cheap seats".

The "cold store" was built in 1901 by the "Society for Market and Refrigerated Halls": cooling of food. The building, built in the style of the north German brick Gothic, belonged to a complex of three buildings on an area of 9000 square meters and together with these at the beginning of the 20th century was the largest refrigerated warehouse complex in Europe. The structure was made of steel and the floors were made of reinforced concrete, which was a completely new technique at that time. The complex survived the Second World War almost undamaged and served after the German division of the Berlin Senate as a warehouse for the "Senate Reserve" — a stockpile by the city of Berlin in the event of a new blockade of Berlin by the GDR and its Soviet occupying power.

In 1979, the building Kühlhaus I was demolished. Kühlhaus II remains thanks to the initiative of architect Dr.-Ing. Helmut Maier, and it was listed as a historical monument. In 2010, extensive renovations began and from 2011 the building with its seven floors has been used as a venue for various events.

Chess in Germany

Germany has been the scene of several World Championship matches and has experienced many major international tournaments throughout history. But judging by the importance of qualifying for the next match and the quality of the participating players, it is probably the highest ranking tournament that has ever taken place in German chess history.

After the Blitz and Rapid Chess World Championship 2015, FIDE's commercial partner Agon has relocated a high-class tournament to Berlin for the second time. The German capital is not only culturally one of the major European centres. This is where German chess history once began. The Berlin Chess Society, founded in 1828, is the oldest existing German chess club. Many developments in opening and endgame theory began here.

Nearly 200 years after the founding of the Berlin Chess Society, there are 49 chess clubs in Berlin with almost 2500 members.

The German Chess Federation is especially pleased about the awarding of the candidate tournament to Berlin. Because 2018 is the "Lasker's year." 150 years ago, in 1868, the only German chess world champion was born and Berlin was one of his personal chess centres. Here he went with his brother Berthold through the chess cafes, discussed with Albert Einstein on the theory of relativity and played many tournaments. Together with the Emanuel Lasker Society, the German Chess Federation is planning numerous events in memory of one of the best players of all time.

The exact location is Luckenwalder Str. 3, near the S-Bahn station Gleisdreieck and in the immediate vicinity of the Berlin Museum of Technology.

Quite central, about a kilometre south of Potsdamer Platz

When

ChessBase will have round-up videos after each round allowing you to quickly catch up on each day's action.

See also

3/27/2018 – Sergey Karjkin didn't succeed in posing serious problems for Ding Liren and after, what he called, a "terrible blunder", he had to scramble to save a draw. That left Caruana in great shape to win the tournament. Mamedyarov struggled to find winning chances with black against Kramnik, but in the end that game ended drawn as well. Caruana, needing only a draw, was in command against Grischuk and even won the game to finish in clear first by a full point! | Photo and drawings by World Chess

See also

3/11/2018 – An unusual start to the Candidates tournament in many respects. Three winners, three losers, and several players troubled by their first-round experience in the "Kuehlhaus" Berlin. The good news is, the first round games were great, amid many teething problems. Fans and professionals alike are eagerly awaiting round two to see how the situation develops. | Photo: Frederic Friedel

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.

Discuss

It's quarter past 1 in Berlin and official site shows "Tournament starts in 45 minutes..." Is this correct? One clicks on "Pairings" and nothing is shown (as far as I know pairings have been published some weeks ago). This seens to be a catastrophe web-wise at least....

Resistance 3/10/2018 12:03

Not to be disrespectful, but the place is awful (let's be honest). FIDE and Agon could've done so much better... (specially if the tournament was to take place in a city as beautiful as Berlin; this is the CANDIDATES TOURNAMENT, for Christ's sake).

cashparov1 3/10/2018 10:28

Wow, an actual picture from the venue, and not some CGI. This event is more secretive than the CIA headquarters.
The promotion of this event has been an EPIC FAIL. The official site is useless and the 15$ live broadcast section reads "coming soon" a few hours before kick-off...
At the start of round 1 expect the live boards to be down, live video non-existent.
FIDE = Fails In Doing Everything.

RayLopez 3/10/2018 07:40

Artists sketches not that good. Ding Liren doesn't have his hair like that; while Mamedyarow, Aronian, Caruana and Kramnik are OK, So, Grischuk and Karjakin look like boys from 15 years ago. But it's better than the cartoon portraits of the heads of all the challengers on the "Candidates 2018" logo, where the heads look fat, like Gerber baby icons. Who authorizes this artwork? Oh yeah, Fide, the same organization that did the Kama Sutra logo for the WC.

GalacticKing 3/10/2018 03:28

Yes, the artistic sketches are high quality, and each one is a nice compliment to the player. Great job! Also, Chessbase, thanks for the wonderful news coverage, as usual.

chessdrummer 3/10/2018 02:15

Beautiful sketches!

JimNvegas 3/9/2018 10:25

For the pairings click above where it says "Schedule via FIDE" and you will see the full pairings.

jajalamapratapri 3/9/2018 08:46

Where are the pairings? Official website is useless of course.

ChesstoImpress 3/9/2018 06:28

It was a long wait but it's finally there. Let the games begin and let the best man win! :)